RECOMMENDED READING: Fortune, frocks, fops and flops – a look at some British and American social history

By | Published February 7, 2013

I’ve been getting a lot of requests asking about a) what I am currently reading, and for b) more Downton Abbey-related content, so here is an historical books reading list that might be of interest…

Focusing largely on non-fiction – although I’ve included some fiction suggestions at the end of this post – I’m alternating between the Victorian-Gilded Age-Edwardian-World War historical biographies and books about society; in particular, the rise of American society/the fall of the British aristocracy and how they came to help each other out, ie. the newly rich Americans marrying off their daughters to poor-but-titled Brits.

As the British upper classes started to enjoy the US dollar cash injection from their newly acquired American heiress wives, and the repairs to their crumbling properties (those that were able to keep them), the world continued to change, with industrialists and working men coming into power with new ideas and methods.

Two world wars, the Jazz Age, and a Depression changed things completely, including the role of women, liberating them from corsets and treatment as chattels, to women of independence, with the ability to make choices for themselves.

Clearly, a lot of these ideas are in line with the thinking of Julian Fellowes and the story development of his phenomenally successful TV series, Downton Abbey, so I figure I’m not the only one spending more time looking into these significant periods in history.

BTW, I was interested to learn that Fellowes is now writing the next series about how the American heiress Cora Levinson came to be married to Lord Grantham, therefore saving the Crawley family from economic and social demise.

The rise of America: The Gilded Age

One of the best books for an overview of the American-heiress-marries-titled-British-pauper is To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace.

To be frank, I think the title is a bit silly (it sounds like a “how-to” guide), but it’s an excellent book, providing great insight into the late 19th century and early 20th century and how the social climbing nouveau riche American industrialists attempted to enter upper class British society by buying their way in, through marrying off their daughters.

Some of the most famous women during the Gilded Age to marry into British high society:

Doña María Consuelo Iznaga y Clement, a Cuban-American socialite (and godmother of Consuelo Vanderbilt, below) who married the fortune-hunting George Montagu, the 8th Duke of Manchester

Consuelo Vanderbiltof the famous Vanderbilt family was most unhappily married to Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, but later divorced on the grounds that she was forced into it. She went on to marry Jacques Balsan.

The Jerome sisters, Clara, Jennie and Leonie, the most famous of whom was Jennie Jerome who also joined the prominent Spencer-Churchill family upon her marriage to Lord Randolph Churchill, and became the mother of Winston Churchill. She later married George Cornwallis-West and Montagu Phippen Porch.

The fall of British aristocracy

David Cannadine’s The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is a great book, but rather heavy going in a scholarly way and not for the fainthearted. It really gets into the nitty gritty of what was going on politically, socially and economically, down to the detail of specific tax rates for specific people in specific counties.

I applaud Cannadine for his meticulous efforts, but I did skip quite a few pages when I realised that I could probably still absorb the gist of his argument. A must-read for academics, however!

Here are some examples:

The Industrial Revolution (1760-1870) enabled industrious middle class and working class men to become successful in business, and some of them also became politicians, therefore redirecting the centre of power from traditional aristocratic landowners, making many of them largely redundant.

With previously-high land rental incomes now greatly reduced due to land taxes and the growth of industry, death duties incredibly high, and the cost of running a stately home on even the most basic level ever increasing, over 1000 of Britain’s great houses were demolished.

The Titanic disaster

Yes, there are millions of books about the Titanic, which sunk dramatically in April 1912, but it’s definitely worth including in this list because it was symbolic of the times, combining stories of wealth and greed, high society, the industrial age and the pursuit of power.

Whilst I knew some of the famous names (Astor, Guggenheim, Straus, Duff Gordon…), it shed light on the very real lives of those I’d only ever seen portrayed in movies. Fascinating.

Note: There are also some an online, searchable databases of the passengers and crew on board the Titanic, which I consulted at the same time as reading the book. It’s good for learning what happened to the people mentioned in the book, if you’re interested in extra details.

Whilst it’s more popular fiction than Pulitzer Prize-worthy, I thoroughly enjoyed being taken down this historical path, playing it as an audio book in my car and sometimes continuing to drive simply to get to the end of a chapter, even when I had arrived at my destination. I suspect there will be a film adaptation at some point.

Note: The book has two titles for UK/US audiences, but it’s the same book.

One Comment

Good morning,
Your paragraph on the above webpage, http://www.mylusciouslife.com/historical-books-reading-list-british-american-social-history/#comment-250655 reads……Doña María Consuelo Iznaga y Clement, a Cuban-American socialite (and godmother of Consuelo Vanderbilt, below) who married the fortune-hunting George Montagu, the 8th Duke of Manchester…….lists Consuelo’s name incorrectly. If you click on her name it takes you to the Wikipedia page which shows her name spelled correctly….Consuelo Yznaga, not Dona Maria Consuelo Iznaga y Clement. Please see the following links for additional proof of the correct spelling. I am also including your paragraph on Consuelo Vanderbilt so that you can see her Wikipedia page, and various books which show the spelling of her godmother as Consuelo Yznaga, not Dona Maria Consuelo Iznaga y Clement……• Consuelo Vanderbilt of the famous Vanderbilt family was most unhappily married to Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, but later divorced on the grounds that she was forced into it. She went on to marry Jacques Balsan……..

Links for Consuelo Yznaga which show her name spelled as Consuelo Yznaga and not Dona Maria Consuelo Iznaga y Clement.

I respectfully ask that the name be changed from Dona Maria Consuelo Iznaga y Clement to her legal, official name of Consuelo Yznaga. Actually, her full name is Francisca Maria de la Consolacion (Consuelo) Yznaga, but she used only Consuelo Yznaga. If you require additional information (proof) I can send you her marriage certificate.
Thank you,
Diana Gomez